Posted on Friday, February 22, 2008
Major U.S. corporations that are part of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which has called for strong legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, also have funded a coal-industry front organization that is waging a $35 million campaign in primary and caucus states to undermine support for such legislation. The front group, Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, has sponsored CNN presidential candidate debates at which no questions were asked about global warming. Corporate greenwashing? Media sellout?
Business Week reported this story on February 20: “Green—Up to a Point—Despite their eco-rhetoric, some USCAP members are supporting efforts to undermine restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions.” The article leads with:
When 10 of the largest U.S. corporations and four environmental groups joined forces last January to lobby for federal regulations to restrict greenhouse-gas emissions, it was seen as a watershed in corporate environmentalism. The U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), comprising 27 companies from General Electric (GE) to General Motors (GM), won praise from enviros by endorsing cuts—10% to 30% of heat-trapping emissions within 15 years and 60% to 80% by 2050—to avert some of the severest consequences of global warming.
Behind the scenes, however, several companies that belong to USCAP are simultaneously supporting efforts and organizations that oppose mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases or promote policies that would make the USCAP reductions nearly impossible to meet....
Quoted in the article:
Frank O’Donnell, president of Washington-based Clean Air Watch: “Many of these companies want the image of being green but are putting their money on the other side of the issue.”
Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club’s coal program: “If you’re serious about stopping climate change, you don’t dig the hole deeper by building new coal-fired power plants.”
“How much longer will USCAP’s true believers allow some members to play both sides? ‘We don’t want to give members a free pass,’ says David Hawkins, director of the climate center at Natural Resources Defense Council, which belongs to USCAP: ‘We do expect them to exert pressure on other organizations.’”
The U.S. Climate Action Partnership Web site describes the partnership as follows:
United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) is a group of businesses and leading environmental organizations that have come together to call on the federal government to quickly enact strong national legislation to require significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. USCAP has issued a landmark set of principles and recommendations to underscore the urgent need for a policy framework on climate change.
Source Watch has this on Amercians for Balanced Energy Choices:
Formed in 2000 to develop astroturf support for coal-based electricity, Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC) promotes the interests of mining companies, coal transporters, and electricity producers. A domain name search reveals that ABEC’s website is registered to the coal industry trade organization Center for Energy and Economic Development.
http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/index.php/csw/details/uscap_abec/